Tool 6.4

OCR PDF: turn a scanned PDF into text you can copy

Make a scanned PDF searchable, or get its text as a .txt file. Reads Spanish and English, up to 30 pages, and turns pages scanned sideways. Runs on our server.

Uses our serverWhen you press the button, the PDF goes over HTTPS to our server (api.ethorns.com), passing through Cloudflare, our network provider. It's read in memory inside a sealed container with no internet access and deleted as soon as the result is sent back; we keep no copy, and the file name is never sent.

How to use it

Drop a scanned PDF, or click to choose it. For photos of a document, put them in a PDF first with JPG to PDF.
Choose what you get: the same PDF with text you can search and copy, or just the text as a .txt file.
Press Read the text. The file goes to our server, and the result downloads by itself.

When the PDF is a picture of the text

A scan looks like text, but to your computer each page is a photo: you can't search it for a name, select a paragraph or copy a number. That's what you get from an office scanner or a copy shop.

OCR (optical character recognition) reads the letters in those photos. This tool runs OCRmyPDF with Tesseract, a free OCR engine, on our server, set up for Spanish and English. It also turns pages that were scanned upside down or sideways.

Example: finding a clause in a scanned lease

You have arriendo-escaneado.pdf, a 12-page scan of your lease, and need to find what it says about the deposit. Ctrl+F finds nothing. Drop the file, keep the first option, the same PDF with text, and press Read the text. You get arriendo-escaneado-searchable.pdf: it looks the same, but now Ctrl+F finds depósito on page 7, and you can copy that paragraph.

With the second option you'd get arriendo-escaneado.txt: just the words, ready to paste into a document. A .txt has no layout, so tables come out as lines of text. Read it through before you use it.

What makes the reading good or bad

The result depends on the scan. A page scanned at 300 dpi, straight and in good light reads well; a crooked photo in a dim room or a faded copy brings mistakes, like 0 for O or a missed accent. Handwriting isn't read reliably. Always check names, numbers and amounts against the original.

It reads the first 30 pages; later pages stay as they are, without text, so split a longer document with Split PDF, which runs on your device. Pages that already have text are left alone, and if every page already has text, the tool tells you so. A file that asks for a password to open can't be read: save a copy without the password first.

FAQ

Does it read Spanish accents and ñ?

Yes. It reads Spanish and English, including á, é, í, ó, ú and ñ, as long as the scan is clear. It's set up for those two languages only, so text in other languages comes out with errors.

Where does my scan go?

When you press the button, it travels over HTTPS to api.ethorns.com, through Cloudflare, our network provider. It's read in memory inside a sealed container with no internet access and deleted as soon as the result is sent back. We keep no copy, never look at it and never use it for anything else. Merge PDF and JPG to PDF, by contrast, never upload anything.

Can it read photos from my phone?

Not directly: it takes a PDF. Put the photos in one with JPG to PDF, which runs on your device. Take them straight on, in good light, with the page filling the frame.

Can I edit the text in Word afterwards?

Choose the .txt option and paste the text into Word or Google Docs. Tables come out as lines of text, so you'll have to rebuild them.

Is there a size limit?

50 MB per file, the first 30 pages, and a few conversions per minute per person. At busy moments the server may ask you to try again in a minute. If a file takes too long, the tool says so: split it into parts.

6.1Compress PDFMake a heavy PDF lighter so a job, university or bank portal accepts it.
6.2Word, Excel, PowerPoint to PDFTurn a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file into a PDF without installing anything: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .odt or .rtf.
6.3PDF to WordTurn a PDF into a Word document you can edit: paragraphs, tables and images come back as a .docx.
6.5PDF to SVGTurn each page of a PDF into an SVG for Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma or a browser, sharp at any size.
6.6Remove PDF passwordGet a copy of a protected PDF that opens without a password, or without print and copy limits, using the password you know.
6.7Merge PDFCombine several PDFs into one in your browser.
6.8Split PDFExtract pages from a PDF, split it into one file per page, or remove the pages you don't need.
6.9Rotate PDFTurn every page of a PDF, or only the ones you choose, 90° either way or 180°, and save the file that way.
6.10Delete PDF PagesType the pages to delete, like 2, 4-6, and download a copy of the PDF without them, the rest in their original order.
6.11PDF Page NumbersStamp page numbers on a PDF as 1, 1 / 12 or Page 1 of 12, in one of six positions, from any start number, skipping the cover if you want.
6.12Watermark PDFStamp a word like DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL across the pages of a PDF, diagonal or horizontal, with the opacity and size you choose.
6.13JPG to PDFTurn JPG, PNG and WebP images into one PDF in your browser.
6.14PDF to JPGConvert each page of a PDF into a JPG or PNG image in your browser.
6.15PDF to PNGConvert PDF pages to PNG images in your browser: lossless, with crisp text and lines.
6.16Sign PDFDraw your signature or upload a photo of it, place it on any page of a PDF and download the signed file.

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